Environment – Page 10 – Slugger O'Toole

“It did its grand tour past the planets and it just goes on, on this voyage of discovery.”

Pete Baker on March 11, 2011, 4:29 pm

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The farthest man-made object from Earth, at some 17.4 billion kilometres, Nasa’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is still performing acrobatics 30-odd years after it was launched. From the BBC report Voyager is executing a series of roll manoeuvres to get one of its instruments into the optimum position to measure particles sweeping away from the Sun. Controllers at the US space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, report a perfect response from the probe. “I liken Voyager to an old car,” …

“the largest capital grant scheme ever run by the Department of Agriculture”

Pete Baker on March 9, 2011, 5:34 pm

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The BBC’s Martin Cassidy notes the NI Audit Office report into the Farm Nutrient Management Scheme, through which some 4000 farmers received grants worth £121million – the largest capital grant scheme ever run by the Department of Agriculture. When, in June 2007, the NI Finance Department gave its formal approval to extend the scheme to provide grant aid to all applications received before 31 March 2006, they had raised concerns about the affordability of the scheme. One of the conditions of the formal …

Look to the north!

Pete Baker on February 17, 2011, 5:13 pm

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The BBC points to the possibility, given clear skies, of further displays of the Aurora Borealis being visible from Northern Ireland following a series of large solar flares – including a level X2.2 flare on the 15th, the most powerful since 2006. But, as the Professor and a separate BBC report notes, there are some practical concerns. The China Meteorological Administration reported that the solar flare caused “sudden ionospheric disturbances” in the atmosphere above China and jammed short-wave radio communications in the …

Rendezvous with Tempel 1

Pete Baker on February 15, 2011, 3:00 pm

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[Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell] Late last night Nasa’s Stardust NExT spacecraft swept past Comet Tempel 1 on the final leg of its 12-year mission. The BBC reports that the spacecraft was about 180 km (110 miles) from the 7.5 km wide comet nucleus during closest approach – the earlier linked Nasa report more accurately records that closest approach at 181 km (112 miles). There was, of course, a much more intimate rendezvous with Comet Tempel 1 by the Deep Impact probe in 2005… a probe which subsequently completed a successful …

“It’s like exploring an alien planet where no one has been before.”

Pete Baker on February 6, 2011, 5:58 pm

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Today is the last planned day of drilling this season for the Russian team attempting to reach Lake Vostok – the largest sub-glacial freshwater lake on Earth. The project to drill down to the lake, which covers 16 square kilometres and has been sealed under approximately 3,750m of ice in the Antarctic for around 15 million years, began over 20 years ago. Earlier this year reports suggested they would be short by 20-30 metres, but since then there have been reports that they are now only 5 metres …

“Of the 54 new planet candidates found in the habitable zone, five are near Earth-sized.”

Pete Baker on February 3, 2011, 3:19 pm

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The Irish Times has a detailed report noting the confirmed discovery of 6 large exo-planets closely orbiting a star in the system, Kepler-11, approximately 2,000 light years from Earth. Even more remarkable are reports that the Kepler space observatory, launched in March 2009, first light in April 2009, has now identified 1,235 planetary candidates – and 54 candidates within the habitable zone – from the data for 156,453 stars observed from the beginning of the science observations on 2 May through 16 September 2009. From the Nasa …

LHC: “if nature is kind to us and the lightest supersymmetric particle, or the Higgs boson, is within reach…”

Pete Baker on February 1, 2011, 2:09 pm

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The Large Hadron Collider at Cern had been scheduled to take a year-long break at the end of 2011, before returning at full power, 7 TeV per beam, in 2012/13. But, as the Guardian’s tame particle physicist Jon Butterworth notes, a new schedule has been announced. From Jon Butterworth The LHC will run through 2011 and 2012, rather than shutting down for more than a year at the end of 2011 as previously planned. This is great news for those of …

Conor Murphy: “I do have confidence [in Laurence MacKenzie].”

Pete Baker on December 31, 2010, 4:27 pm

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Following the intervention of the First and deputy First Ministers in the Northern Ireland water crisis, a NI Executive statement was issued stating that “There was considerable anger across the Ministerial spectrum about the shambolic response of NI Water which had let down the whole community.” OFMDFM appear to be still singing from the same hymn sheet. “There has to be accountability” they both have said. Mr McGuinness said: “There has to be accountability and we are not going to under …

“the snow is [still] general all over…”

Pete Baker on December 25, 2010, 3:11 pm

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As spotted by WorldbyStorm. For copyright reasons I’ll not reproduce it here, but Met Éireann have a stunning image of the snowfall across the UK & Ireland taken at 13.09 on 22 December from the NERC Satellite Receiving Station, Dundee University, Scotland. And if you take a look at their gallery, you’ll see things haven’t changed much since then… Pete Baker

Blue sunset on Mars

Pete Baker on December 24, 2010, 2:50 pm

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Using a clip from NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, which NASAtelevision has online, here’s a short seasonal treat from JPLnews. Accelerating about 17 minutes of sunset on Nov. 4 and 5, 2010, into a 30 second simulation it’s the longest sunset movie from Mars ever produced. There’s also a clip of Phobos partially eclipsing the Sun, if you follow the links… Nasa press release here. Pete Baker

Searching for exoplanets

Pete Baker on December 12, 2010, 3:26 pm

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With the BBC noting a somewhat speculative report on a newly discovered exoplanet, Wasp 12b, here’s a short informative video from ESA Euronews on the ongoing search for planets beyond our solar system. And here are some previous posts on the topic. Pete Baker

Water supplies cut due to shortages in Dublin and Cork

Pete Baker on December 7, 2010, 9:51 pm

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Unfortunate timing as the Irish government’s budget details are revealed, but as RTÉ reports Councils in the capital are making cuts to overnight supply for at least the next three nights. Fingal County Council has cut water supply from 7pm until 7am tomorrow. Dublin City Council has cut water supply during the same period – from 7pm to 7am. South Dublin saw cuts to supply or loss of pressure at 8pm until 6am. Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown has cut water supply in …

“This is different from anything we’ve seen before”

Pete Baker on December 2, 2010, 8:42 pm

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When Nasa called a press conference “to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life” there was “snowballing speculation” about what they might have found, and calls to Nasa from the White House and Congress. The Science journal’s embargo didn’t help – paper abstract here. What they’ve found is a bacterium in California’s Mono Lake that, apparently, can use arsenic instead of phosphorus in its DNA. As the Nasa Astrobiology website notes Up until now, it …

“Although the delivery timetable for local government has not yet been finalised by the Executive…”

Pete Baker on December 1, 2010, 4:27 pm

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The Northern Ireland Environment Minister, the DUP’s Edwin Poots, may be introducing a Planning Bill to the NI Assembly next week – with the intention to absorb Planning Service within the Department of the Environment before transferring planning powers to local councils. And he may be seeking views “on proposals aimed at modernising and strengthening local democracy”. But as he admits in his press release, the timetable for the proposed “transfer of Development Plan and Development Management powers to councils” has yet …

Fermi Finds Galactic Gamma-ray-emitting Bubbles

Pete Baker on November 13, 2010, 4:19 pm

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Fascinating discovery by Nasa’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which achieved first light in August 2008. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. From the Nasa press release NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way. The feature spans 50,000 light-years and may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy. “What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and …

Comet Hartley 2 Flyby – “Just spectacular”

Pete Baker on November 6, 2010, 3:28 pm

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Here’s a wondrous short video of the recent flyby of Comet Hartley 2 by the Nasa/JPL EPOXI Mission using 40 images taken from Deep Impact’s Medium-Resolution Instrument during the encounter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD/Brown University. And the EPOXI Mission scientists present their preliminary findings at a press conference. Video via NASAtelevision. Pete Baker

Deep Impact to Flyby Hartley 2

Pete Baker on November 4, 2010, 2:56 pm

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As I mentioned last month, Nasa’s Deep Impact probe was redirected towards comet 103P/Hartley at the start of 2008 as part of the EPOXI mission – see post from the time. The image top was taken by the EPOXI mission on Nov. 2, 2010 from a distance of 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles). [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD] And, as the BBC report notes, Deep Impact should be flying within 700km of the comet just about now [1402 GMT]. Live coverage on Nasa TV. …

Clearing the cosmic fog

Pete Baker on October 21, 2010, 8:13 pm

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As the BBC noted, astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope [VLT] have confirmed that galaxy UDFy-38135539, one of several candidates identified in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) image of the Fornax Constellation acquired with the telescope’s new Wide Field Camera 3 last year, is the most distant galaxy ever detected. [Image credit: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory and University of California, Santa Cruz) and the HUDF09 Team] Spectroscopic analysis of data collected during a 16 hour observation using the VLT identified a red shift …

Robinson: “This will test the enthusiasm of the Executive for making savings in local government.”

Pete Baker on October 16, 2010, 12:51 pm

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As Brian has already noted, Northern Ireland First Minister, the DUP’s Peter Robinson, has set out his views on the desirability of a “single educational system” here. As, previously, did the NI Secretary of State. We’ll wait to see if the deputy First Minister is still “all for it”. But in his speech Peter Robinson also tackled some of Sinn Féin’s recent economic proposals. From the DUP leader’s speech Another red herring thrown across the debate to deflect attention from the issue …

“on the timescales involved in this event, we’re really catching it in the moment of happening”

Pete Baker on October 13, 2010, 10:09 pm

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When the comet-like asteroid P/2010 A2 was identified as a suspected asteroid-asteroid collision in January this year it was the first such collision caught “in the act”. Images Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA). As the BBC notes, subsequent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Rosetta probe suggest that the collision probably occurred in early 2009. Here’s a sequence of Hubble observations from January to May 2010, with scale. As the associated text explains The asteroid debris, dubbed P/2010 A2, appears to be …